According to experts, lots of food products are likely to contain a flavoring ingredient contaminated with salmonella.

This has lead to a lot of products being recalled by the companies.

Food and Drug Administration Associate Commissioner for Food Protection, Jeffrey Farrar said, “We do suspect the amount of products is going to increase over the next several days or weeks”.

However, the Government Food Officials said that the risk involved in these products is low, since cooking, either before or after sale, kills the bacteria, if any.

FDA said that the recalled products include soups, sauces, chilies, stews, hot dogs, gravies, seasoned snack foods, dips and dressings.

The flavoring is hydrolyzed vegetable protein, or HVP, which is cheap and widely used. The HVP involved in the recall was made by Basic Food Flavors of North Las Vegas, Nev.

It is expected that the recall will be limited to few products because most of the products containing HVP are cooked before being sold.

Experiments reveal that HVP polluted with the salmonella bacteria can cause high fever, severe headache, vomiting, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. It can also lead to severe infections, especially in children and elder people who have weak immune systems.

Farrar says that food manufactured since Sept. 17, 2009, is involved in the recall but no case of sickness has been reported till date.